Ex-communist Europe

Slovakia's borders

Tunnel vision

SLOVAK officials discovered a 700-metre tunnel complete with its own train used to smuggle goods and maybe people from neighbouring Ukraine into the European Union (EU). They seized some 13,100 boxes of cigarettes and arrested a pair of men caught in the act. This has never happened before. "It is as if this has been cut out of a movie from the Mexican-American border,” Peter Kažimír, the finance minister, said.

The bust came as a joint effort between tax and customs officials in an operation code named “Tax Cobra.” Robert Kaliňák, the interior minister, said officials detained two men loading a truck on July 18th, confiscating a tobacco haul that would have bypassed some €350,000 in excise tax. Police had to fire warning shots as the 59-year-old alleged ringleader – who was renting the industrial property where the tunnel emerged -- sought to flee the scene.

The tunnel begins in a house in the Ukrainian city of Uzhorod and exits inside a building some 220 metres into Slovak territory on private property between the villages of Vyšné Nemecké and Nižné Nemecké. Officials estimate the tunnel could have helped dodge up to €50 m in tobacco tax over the past year.

“I walk by everyday,” said Milan Husár, the mayor of Nižné Nemecké. “I haven’t noticed anything. It’s a fenced property and it seemed like they were processing wood there. Three-hundred people go-by everyday to work. Police, customs, everybody.”

The tunnel varied in depth between 3 and 6 metres underground. Officials said the tunnel was “unusually professional” in its use of mining technology. It was outfitted with tracks and a trolley for transporting goods and was about 1 metre in diameter. With warning labels that were written in English, the cigarettes were not destined for the Slovak market, highlighting growing concerns over illicit cigarettes that bypass taxes and, once they are within the 26-country Schengen area, move freely between countries.

A study in 2011 by KPMG, the consulting firm, found that some 10% of all cigarettes consumed in the EU are contraband – 64 billion smokes annually­­--with Italy as the largest single destination. Slovak customs alone confiscated 41.3m illicit cigarettes last year. “Today, smuggling is not about goods that are difficult to get, but about goods with consumer taxes in our region,” said Miroslava Slemenská, a customs spokeswoman.

Among the brands confiscated July 18th was Jin Ling, a cigarette label produced in the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, which is banned in the EU and produced specifically for smuggling. Some studies of the brand have found they contain asbestos. The two men arrested thus far hail from western Slovakia, far from the Ukraine border. Police are declining to release more details saying additional arrests are likely. Ukrainian officials are now involved, although there have yet to be any arrests on that side of the border.

At least as intriguing as what Slovak authorities have confirmed is what they have declined to refute: The tunnel may also have been used to smuggle people.

Why not? Slovakia's mining history is quite old and very illustrious. They know a thing or two about how to build tunnels. Maybe the Slovaks and the Mexicans can compare notes on tunnel building and maintenance? After all, tobacco is merely another drug, really - albeit legal, but heavily taxed...

I don't think either the Slovaks or the Mexicans would want to be seen with the Gazans. They, the Slovaks and Mexicans, very well might consider it a grave insult to lump them together with the Gazans. After all, they are honest drug smugglers and not vicious terrorists, you know... ;-)

A somewhat dated, but very informative story about "Russian contraband cigarettes ‘flooding’ EU " (link provided by TE author) describing the scope and sophistication of the cigarette smuggling operations from Kaliningrad into Western Europe and beyond is an eye-opener. Against this background the Slovakian tunnel story, while interesting, is really a relatively minor incident that is unlikely to affect future supply of Russian-made illicit brands in Western Europe. For all we know, maybe Russia's Gazprom has been so proactive in building new pipelines to Europe to facilitate exports of other products than Russian gas ? :))

well, the most hunted animal these days inside EU is the smoker. Gays, pedofiles, anarchists, petty thieves, vagrants, violents, illegals, all have many more rights and enjoy more consideration than a smoker...and all that is happening in an ambiguous manner, instead of tackling the problem from the root, forbid comercialisation of cigarettes once and for all, authorities prefer making fun of the smokers, allowing for the cigarettes to be bought legally but increasing the taxes day by day, day by day restricting their rights, day by day criminalising the smokers more and more.

Given such a huge disparity in cigarette pricing in the EU, no wonder a booming black market attracts Kaliningrad smugglers !http://www.pmi.com/eng/tobacco_regulation/illicit_trade/documents/Project_Star_2010_Results.pdf

The best way is to organize an international summer camp and symposium for exchange of ideas in Gaza. They're quite prominent with their smuggling tunnels over there, too. Screw pesky cigarettes and couple of prostitutes they smuggle in Slovakia... Gazans make it away with rockets!
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Good idea for Israelis, too - bring down the main tunnel during the international training session with couple of bunker busters, to the delight of EU tax collectors.

".... Jin Ling, a cigarette label produced in the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, which is banned in the EU and produced specifically for smuggling. Some studies of the brand have found they contain asbestos."

But why go to all the trouble of smuggling Russian brands produced in Kaliningrad via an underground tunnel from Uzhgorod to Slovakia when one could employ a Russian flotilla of tugboats operating from Kaliningrad along the Baltic Sea coast to some point on the Polish or German coast ? The explanation appears to be that the asbestos-containing Russian cigarette brands are preferred in the Balkans.

Shiite, my bad... I forgot this stuff about honorable thugs as opposed to politically motivated ones. And just to think I was salivating at the prospect of making a penny by providing simultaneous interpreting service for the camp... doh!